52 TIME September 3–10, 2018
insurgents attacked government buildings, assaulted
the central prison, destroyed a telecommunications
tower and set ire to a local television station. Afghan
local police and military oicials temporarily lost
control of several areas of the city.
U.S. Special Operations Command headquarters
scrambled to respond, deploying three 12-man Green
Beret teams from 1st Special Forces Group along with
their Afghan partnered force from the 2nd Com-
mando Kandak, and conventional U.S. infantry sol-
diers from 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th In-
fantry Division.
For the men of ODA 1333 and their detachment
of around 100 U.S. soldiers and Afghan comman-
dos, the orders sounded straightforward: help secure
two Afghan helicopters downed by the Taliban near
Ghazni. They knew they would have to take the long
way around, because the Taliban had buried so many
land mines along the direct road leading into Ghazni
that it was impassable. What was usually a 60-mile
trip westward from Paktia province would instead
cover 160 miles of terrain. The troops loaded up their
weapons and clambered aboard hulking RG-33 and
M-ATV armored vehicles, which rumbled into the
night toward Highway 1, an ancient 300-mile two-
lane road that serves as the main artery linking the
seat of government in Kabul to Kandahar.
The Taliban knew the Americans were coming
and where they were coming from—there was only
one way in. So the militants lay in wait, armed with
rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47s.
The soldiers of ODA 1333 would never reach the
downed helicopters. Instead, they spent the next ive
days ighting hundreds of Taliban ighters in an end-
less series of running battles that debilitated vehicles
and maimed members of their unit. “I’ve never seen
that many [rocket-propelled grenades] in my career,”
says the team’s sergeant, who, like others, spoke to
TIME on the condition of anonymity.
In the face of recurring attacks, ODA 1333 and
their attached units weren’t able to breach the city
until some 17 hours later. The soldiers moved to a
small makeshift outpost on Ghazni’s outskirts, where
U.S. Special Forces teams had been based before the
2014 troop drawdown. Even there, they could ind no
refuge. Within 25 minutes of arriving, a mortar round
arched over the perimeter and crashed through the
back wall of a plywood structure where two Afghan
soldiers were bedding down. The percussive thump
of mortar ire shook the ground under the men, fol-World
A Green Beret,
left, and a
Special Tactics
airman prepare
to move toward
Ghazni from
a makeshift
outpost on
Aug. 16